Moving subjects: Directions and methodological challenges in the historical study of migrant children and youth

Abstract

Over the last decade and a half, scholars have demonstrated increased interest in studying the history of young people, as signalled by an expanding presence of relevant societies and journals. Though children and young people comprise a significant number of the world's current migrant population, young migrants in the past are not often the central focus of historical research. This article aims to encourage historians of migration and forced migration to increase their engagement with the histories of children, youth, and childhood. Young migrants are moving subjects: they traverse space and time, and their portrayal often encourages compassion. Since the 18th century, they have frequently inhabited social ‘categories of exception,’ and as such have lent meaning to the category of ‘adult’ and ‘citizen’ and to normative expectations of families, communities, and society at large. With this in mind, we suggest that integrating histories of child and youth migration and mobility offers opportunities to reassess historiographical, methodological, and conceptual questions in the field of migration studies, including the relationship of policy to research, the creation of typologies, and the temporality of labels.